Brush



March 26, 1940. E. a. SOMERS BRUSH Filed May 19, 1958 Patented Mar. 26,1940 PATENT OFFlCE BRUSH Eiward B. Somers, Darby," Pa.

Application May 19, 1938, Serial No. 208,872

3 Claims.

My invention relates to brushes. The widest use of the brushes of thepresent invention is expected to be for cleaning type of typewriters andthe like.

A purpose of the invention is to provide a brush having a spirallyprogressing cotton or other absorbent applicator mounted upon a wirehandle.

A further purpose is to provide a brush having spirally woundintertwined rows of bristles and cotton or other suitable absorbentmaterial.

A further purpose is to provide a brush having spirals of bristles andabsorbent material, intertwined, the bristles forming facings for axialwalls of the absorbent material.

Further purposes will appear in the specification and in the claims.

In the drawing I have preferred to illustrate one form only of myinvention, selecting a form which is eflicient and inexpensive and whichwell illustrates the invention.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of my brush and its bottle closure cansupport.

Figure 2 is a section of the spiral oi bristles taken upon line 22 ofFigure 1, the section being intended to follow the spiral.

Figure 3 is a section upon the line 3-3 of Figure 1, similar to Figure 2but showing a row of cotton.

Figures 4 and 5 are side elevations showing, one, the brisltes only, andthe other, the absorbent material only of the two used in my invention.

Figure 6 illustrates my brush with a slight modification of the arm.

Heretofore brushes for use to clean the type or platens of typewriters,adding machines and similar mechanisms have provided spiraled generallycontinuous stiff bristles and separate applicators to be used inconjunction with some cleaning agent. This has not proven whollysatisfactory because it has been necessary to use the applicator andbristles separately or to have a non-uniform and discontinuousoperation.

The present brush is rigid with a bottle closure. It has alternatehelical rows of cotton, or other suitable absorbent material, and hardbristles facing both axial sides of the cotton. The cleaning fluid isthus applied nearly simultaneously with the brushing, producing a mostsatisfactory result.

In the drawing, III is a bottle closure cap' of any suitable design ormaterial supporting a twisted wire handle I I, within a boss l2,integral with the cap.

The wire handle ll comprises two strands of wire I3 and i4 twisted abouteach other and at the lower end [5 gripping a cleaning brush I6.

The cleaning brush is made up of bristles l1 6 and absorbent materiali8, shown and described in this instance as soft cotton threads.

In the formation of the brush a wire i3 is placed in'a suitable die (notshown), and layers, one of bristles and the other of cotton thread, 1are ,laid across it. A second wire I4 is then placed above the layersand the two wires are twisted about each other. The cotton threads andbristles are thus formed in a helical brush in which the stiffness ofthe bristles causes them to form facings I9 and 20 for the oppositeaxial helical surfaces of the spiral l8 of cotton. The groove or gutterbetween is thus also bounded or limited by walls i9 and 20 of bristle.Conveniently the two wires described above are shown in the drawing asone wire bent back upon itself.

The twisting operation also forms the handle.

The cleaning brush can be made with the spiral rib of bristles andcotton threads close together or spaced at any suitable distance apartby the 25 control of the quantity or volume of cotton and of bristlesand the number of twists per inch of lineal dimension of the brushlength.

Figures 4 and 5, elements of my brush, Figure 4 showing it as it wouldexist if bristles only were 80 used, the spiral space or gutter betweenthe spiraled bristles being the gutter oi the finished brush. Figure 5shows the'wlnding of the cotton strands only. It fills up the space 2|between the helical turns of bristle so that both axial 35 faces of thecotton are covered by bristles. Considering the combined cotton andbristle helix as an advancing helical rib, the individual bristles passthrough betweenthe wires and extend one end 22 of each bristle to formpart of the facing 40 of what, with respect to the direction 24 of ribadvance, maybe considered the back wall 23 of one helical rib and theother end 25 of each bristle to form part of the front wall 26 of anadjoining helical turn 21 of .the rib.

For ease of application to some difflcult type platens .I have formedthe handle of my brush with an offset 28, which is seen in Figure 6.

The cotton threads will absorb and carry suflicient cleaning fluid tothe type, and the brush, 50 being of stifl bristles, will immediatelycome into contact with the type after the cleaning fluid has beenapplied, and before it can vaporize.

In both-directions of longitudinal brush movement each spiral turn of mybrush presents to ll type or to other parts to be cleaned, first arelatively dry rim of bristle, then the intermediate cotton whichcarries the solvent cleaning liquid and, finally, a rim of bristles. Andin each direction of movement the final rim of bristles is free to yieldinto the spiral groove or gutter space 29 and to discharge into thisspiral groove the dirt which it has removed.

It will be evident that both the bristles and the cotton threads passthrough between the twisted wires to form opposite sides of coaxialgrooves, each having a diiferent one of the wires at its bottom. The onegroove which shows in the drawing has facings of bristle on oppositesides, and the other, an intervening spiral groove" with facings ofcotton. Because of the stiffness of the bristles they maintain theirpositions seen, form facings for the cotton, and provide the open grooveseen in the drawing, whereas because of its tendency to spread thecotton on the two sides of what would otherwise show as a coaxialintervening spiral groove in the brush fills upthe groove which it facesand gives the appearance of a full thickness or rib of cotton instead ofedgings of cotton. The second groove" with a wire at its bottom,therefore, does not show as a groove at all but shows as the cotton corebetween bristles in the draw- The brush shows one wire only of the pairof twisted wires, at the bottom of the one groove only which appears.This groove lies between the facings of bristle and the other wire ofthe twisted pair is hidden by the mass effect of the cotton.

In view of my invention and disclosure variations and modifications tomeet individual whim or particular need will doubtless become evident toothers skilled in the art to obtain all or part of the benefits of myinvention without copying the structure shown, and I, therefore, claimall such in so far as they fall within the reasonable spirit and scopeof my invention.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a brush, a twisted wire handle, and alternate rows of bristles andabsorbent material held by the wires, the bristles forming supportingand protecting walls maintaining both faces of each row of absorbentmaterial and each such faced row being spaced from the next faced row.

2. In a brush for cleaning type or the like, layers of bristles andabsorbent material, and twisted wires holding the bristles and absorbentmaterial, forming helical rows of bristles and absorbent material, thesame bristles forming facings and supports for adjacent faces ofadjacent rows of absorbent material.

3. A twisted wire brush for cleaning typewriters or the like comprisinga twisted pair of wires, a continuous spiral of cotton threads and ofbristles held together by the wires, opposite ends of the same bristlesforming two spiral rows covering respectively the two oppositelydirected adjacent axial faces of adjoining turns of the cotton spiraland separated, one turn of the spiral from the next by one of the wires,thus providing a bristle faced cotton spiral with a clearing space inbetween the turns.

ELWARD B. SOMERS.

